Escape From the Shadows
by sweetdarkchild
Summary: After Elvenborn. Rina is struggling with her famous parents, Shana and Lorryn. When she is finally fed up, she runs away to the Iron People, but is captured on the way by a group of renegade elves. Mostly about her trying to escape, and afer. Please R
1. Chapter 1

Hi everyone who is reading this! This is my first attempt at a story. Like it says in the summary, it takes place after Elvenborn, and there will be several of characters that you'll recognize, if you've actually read the Elvenbane series. Which you should, if you haven't, because it's really good.

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_: RINA!:_ Mother's mental "voice" flashed through my head, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. My careful thoughts, organized to the point of obsession, scattered, and the complicated spell I had been completing flared and died. _What did I do now? _I wondered. It always had to be something –that or a chore that Mother or Father, or a senior wizard or dragon wanted doing.

_: Yes, Mother?:_ I ventured a careful thought-thread to her mind, _:Is there something you needed?:_

_: Yes:_ Mother snapped _:Your father needs to have that amber-globe you borrowed last week- now! He's working on a very important protection spell, and needs the extra power: _

_Oh, no!_ I thought, _did she mean the amber-globe that I'd let Leonora, Uncle Keman and Aunt Dora's son borrow?! The one that he'd promised to return yesterday, and hadn't?! _

_:LEO! Answer me, now!:_ I sent a thought-shriek into my best friends head, praying that he was a) awake or b) at least half-conscious. Leo had a distressing tendency to fall into a half-coma, resisting even the loudest of my mental shouts. Fortunately for me, Leo was wide-awake, practicing his shapeshifting into smaller and smaller forms.

_: What, Rina?:_ he asked, sounding weary and a little annoyed, _:I'm trying to get past half-blood form, and you know how hard it is!:_ Changing into shapes smaller that half-bloods had been introduced to our Lair by Aunt Dora, who said that one of the elders in her former Lair had found a way. Most young dragons ignored it, but Leo seemed to be in a similar position as I was, trying to live up to his parents' fame.

_: Leo, I need that amber-globe I lent you a couple days ago. Mother said Father needs it, and I'll get into trouble if I don't get it to her!:_ My thoughts were slightly slurred, as I was running at top speed to my hoard, to get my scrying and magnifying-stones. Being raised with the Kin as well as half-bloods, my lifestyle was a mix of both: I ate cooked food, and slept in a bed instead of on the floor, but I kept a hoard of some gemstones and valuable trinkets I found, as well as the shed skin of all my Kin family.

_:Oh. Uh, Rina?:_ Leo's thoughts were hesitant. My skin instantly began to prickle, and I felt another scolding from Mother on the way, _:I'm kind of busy right now… see, I'm not the only one practicing shifting…Kara's here: _

_Fire and Rain! _I thought indignantly, _can't Leo keep his mind off her for five minutes?!_

Karactina, another young dragon, was Leo's er, female friend, was very nice, but Leo was extremely devoted to her, and Rina was hard-pressed to tear him away from her.

_: Leo. If you can't tear yourself away from your adolescent lust, I'll just have to scry for it in your rooms: _I couldn't help but sound stern; I _needed _that globe! When there was no response, I pulled my favorite scrying-stone, a concave quartz disc, and concentrated on the globe of amber. After several moments, I located it in his sleeping-chamber, and yanked at it with my power. A moment later, the globe appeared at my feet, slightly glowing from the magic that had been worked on it.

_: Father?: _I asked hesitantly, sending a thought-tendril in his direction, _:I have the globe; should I bring it to you, or do you want to get it? I'm right outside my hoard room:_

_: Yes, Rina, I'll get it from here:_ My father Lorryn's voice sounded weary, but relieved. Apparently that spell he'd been working required more power that he'd originally thought, something that often happened with my father. The amber-globe glowed again, and disappeared. I breathed a sigh of relief: another scolding escaped.

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Ok, this is my first fanfic. I know it's not the best, but I'm working on it! Please R&R, I need the advice! Oh, and if you are slightly mentally challenged, Rina is Shana and Lorryn's daughter, and she is living in the new Citadel, in the parts that the Dragons took.

Thanks!

SDC

PS- I'm really sorry about this, but there'll probably be a little while between each chapter, because it's summer vacation and we're going on a trip soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everyone-

**I'm really sorry to do this, but I realized a while ago that I really need to change the perspective of the story. So, instead of it being from Rina's POV, I'm changing to 2****nd**** person. **

Disclaimer: I do not own the Elvenbane series. I only own the characters that I make up, and this particular plot.

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Rina sprinted away from her parents' cave, tears stinging her eyes. This was bad- she'd never see Mother so angry. Even mellow Father had been shouting, his face red as Alara's scales. As soon as Serina had gotten far enough away from the main cave-complex, she sat down against the wall, buried her head in her hands, and began to sob.

_Why did Mother and Father have to get so angry? And why did that stupid little _bitch_ Leila have to get involved in my business? _Recently, Serina had found a louper pup, newborn, with his eyes still shut tightly. She had named him Shen, and taken him to her little cavelet to be cared for by her and Leo, who had inherited his father's love of interesting pets. Together, the two had raised him from a little scrap of a thing to a half-grown animal. Mother and Father _did_ know about Shen, but Mother had said that as long as he was kept in her room and didn't cause trouble, she could keep him! Disaster had struck when a 16-year old, Leila, who had a long feud with Rina, had snuck into her chamber to try to find evidence to get her into trouble. Instead of finding illegal substances, or stolen things, Leila found Shen, and released him into the Citadel, where he wreaked havoc.

_It was only ONE side of ham –and a few loaves of bread, some sweets, and most of the jerky. And all those other wizards whose rooms he got into should've kept their doors closed! It's not Shen's fault he's inquisitive! _ Rina slumped over, despairing. No matter how many times she told Mother and Father that _Leila_ was the one who had let Shen go, they still insisted that it was Rina's fault. And now, because of that, the older wizards whose rooms Shen had gotten into –and destroyed –were insisting that he was either released or put down! _He's still a pup! Shen wouldn't be able to survive in the wild –he isn't part of any pack, he'd get cut to bits by the first ones he met! And the alicorns would completely slaughter him!_ Not to mention the fact that Rina would soon be "slaughtered" herself, but instead by Leila's friends, for the bloody nose and black eye that Rina gave her. There would be no where to run…!

_That's it! _Rina thought excitedly _I can just run away! Aunt Rena's taught me some of the elven lady magic, so I can make food and shelter, I have mind magic, and Father's taught me lots of fighting magic! I'll be fine!_ With these new thoughts running through her head, Rina leapt up and ran again –but this time to her cavelet to prepare.

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Sorry this one's so short, guys. I wanted to have a cliffy(ish), but it went so fast! Please R&R, I haven't gotten any reviews yet! Let's make it one for this, okay?

SDC

xoxo


	3. Chapter 3

This is the third chapter to my fanfic. There's going to be more space between these chapters, because now I'm writing three stories at the same time. Yes, yes, I know that's extremely stupid, but I can't help it. Please review!

Oh, and this is probably going to be the chapter where Rina gets captured, I'm not positive though.

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Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Shana, Lorryn, Rena, Mero, or Kyrtain. I also do not own the Elvenbane series. Just the characters I make up.

Rina scampered throughout her little cavelets, gathering the things she thought she would need for her journey. _Let's see,_ she thought busily _I'll need my concentrating and enlarging stones, some dried food, and my biggest water canteen. _Rina was confident that she would be able to transport Shen from where he was being held in the council chamber, and then escape. Shoving everything that she had gathered into a large leather backpack, Rina set out from her room, stopping only to cast a quick spell of invisibility on herself when she saw any passers by.

Soon, Rina was right next to the council room door. Wedging herself into a tiny alcove in the rock wall, she dug out her magic-concentrating stone, a concave disk of moonstone, and proceeded to invoke the transportation spell, taking care to quiet her magic as she did so. After a few moments, a soft golden glow appeared around a particular point about a foot in front of her, about the size and shape of Shen. Rina called up a last little particle of magic inside herself, "squeezed" and let it go. She was instantly leaped on by her louper pup, who covered her face in slobbery wet kisses. Rina quickly dug out Shen's rawhide leash out of her pack, and attached it to his little collar. Accompanied by her dog, Rina set forth.

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Several hours later, Rina trudged up the last hill that she would complete that day. Despite being strong and agile from scrambling over rocks and into little burrows around the Citadel, hiking several miles at top speed to avoid being caught was a little more than she was used to. Rina's feet, though shod in strong leather boots, were sore with several blisters well on their way to being created. She slumped down under a tree, only taking a few moments to create a little shelter of stuck-together leaves with some greenery thrown on top to create a more "natural" look. After bringing in two rabbits for her and Shen to share, Rina burrowed down into her bedroll and fell fast asleep, with Shen curled up beside her.

And was awakened by a foot kicking her roughly in the side. Rina jumped upright, bringing her fists up for a bare-handed fight, and preparing to loose a levin-bolt at her attacker. Before she could do anything, however, an iron collar was clamped around her neck, negating her elven magics, and a cloth sack was thrown over her head. Using her mind-magic to read the thoughts of her captors, Rina heard one of them, though the other had the "blankness" usually associated with the elven collars, though none had been used in years.

_Nice little one we got here_, Rina heard a coarse, uncultured "voice" inside one of their heads. Plucking his name from his mind _Kel_, she realized, was an ex-bondling now being paid to work as a slaver. _For who?_ She wondered, there were supposed to be no slaves outside of elven land, and those were supposed to be uncollared. Reaching deeper into Kel's mind, Rina found that he was working for a... Lord Gildor. _What? _Rina thought in disbelief, for she had often heard her aunt Rena talk of an idiot Gildor, whom she had been betrothed to for a short time prior to her escape with Lorryn. Apparently, he was the son of Lyon Lord Kyndreth, a powerful Great Lord of the elves, and was interested in nothing except his favorite concubine and sporting. About to glean more information about her captor's employer, Rina received another vicious kick in the side, and a drugged cloth was placed over her nose and mouth. _Oh, no-!_ She thought as the drugs took control. _What am I..._


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